- A lot of people have asked
me why I spend so much time
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reading ancient history
and why we spend so much time
00:00:03.13\00:00:05.90
talking about it on this show.
00:00:05.90\00:00:07.94
It's because the faith of
the Bible is a historical faith,
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and you really can't
grasp what the Bible says,
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unless you get context.
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So today on Authentic,
00:00:15.01\00:00:17.48
I'm gonna talk about
what you need to know
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about first century Palestine
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and what it might say
about your faith and mine today.
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[bright upbeat music]
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To try and
understand the story of Jesus
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without understanding
its historical context
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is to make a
little bit of a caricature
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out of the famous Nazarene.
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That makes understanding
Christianity pretty difficult
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too. Personally, I have
a fear that our generation
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is becoming somewhat
historically illiterate,
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and once we lose
our historical roots,
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we become prone to a
couple of serious problems.
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First of all, we
lose sight of the fact
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that the Christian faith
is distinctly historical,
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a system of belief
that continues a story
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that comes from the Jews.
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It's a story
where a personal God
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is accomplishing His purposes
by acting in our history.
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Secondly, without
historical context,
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it becomes tempting to
jettison elements of our faith
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we think are
superfluous, or even silly,
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because we lack a
good understanding
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of how those
elements of the faith
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got there in the first place.
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The story of Jesus as
you find it in the gospels,
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takes place
under Roman occupation,
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an imperial nation
that some people consider
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the world's first
truly totalitarian empire.
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The Romans required
you to be submissive,
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even though in some respects,
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they granted conquered
people quite a bit of freedom
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especially when
it came to religion.
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As a new subject
to the Roman empire,
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you were allowed
to keep your own faith
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as long as you also
acknowledged the Roman emperor
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to be a God.
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Now, to be perfectly clear,
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very few people
actually thought the emperor
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was some kind of deity
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because after all, a lot of
the most powerful people in Rome
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knew the emperor
when he was a kid
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and they knew full well
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that he was just as
human as anybody else.
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But symbolically,
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the emperor represented
the very spirit of Roma,
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the spirit of the empire,
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and so adding the
emperor to your list of gods
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became a symbol of
loyalty to the Romans.
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Of course, this
presented all kinds of problems
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for the Jews
because they would not
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and could not
acknowledge any God,
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but the God of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
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The first commandment in
their moral law said after all,
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"You shall not have
any gods before me."
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And so venerating the emperor
that was strictly off limits,
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that made the Jews a bit of
a sticky problem for the Romans
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because other nations had
no trouble adding the emperor
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to their Pantheon,
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because when you
already have a dozen gods,
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what's one more.
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It wasn't a problem for
people like the Phoenicians,
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but it was a problem
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for the world's
original monotheistic religion.
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Add to that,
the troubled history
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that other conquerors faced
when they came to the holy land
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and the
indignities that Jews suffered
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at the hands of other empires,
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and the Romans
found the Jews to be well,
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let's say more than a handful.
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During the 400 years between
the close of the old Testament
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and the beginning of the new,
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the Jews had
suffered persecution
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at the hands of
a Hellenistic king
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named Antiochus Epiphanes,
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who went out of his
way to make the miserable.
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To begin with,
he built a gymnasium
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near the temple in Jerusalem,
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which doesn't sound
like much of a problem,
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who doesn't want a gym,
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except for the
fact that Greek athletes
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almost always
practiced in the nude
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like a bunch of
deplorable Gentiles.
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In fact, the word gym
comes from the Greek word gymnos
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which means naked.
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Then Antiochus
Epiphanes took the temple itself
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and converted it
into a temple of Zeus
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where he
sacrificed an unclean pig
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to the chief of pagan gods.
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So by the time the
Romans came to town,
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it's safe to say the
Jews were a little frayed.
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For the Jews,
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a Gentile occupation was
not just a political problem,
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it was also a
distinctly religious one.
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The land they
occupied was not just some plot
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of real estate,
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it was a vital part
of the Jewish faith,
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it was an inheritance
given to their father Abraham
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by the one true God.
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Here's the way you
find that described
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over in the book of
Genesis, where it says,
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"And the Lord said to Abram,
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after Lot had
separated from him,
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'lift your eyes now,
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and look from the place where
you are, northward, southward,
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eastward and westward,
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for all the land
which you see I give to you
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and your descendants forever.
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And I will make your descendants
as the dust of the earth
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so that if a man could
number the dust of the earth,
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then your descendants
also could be numbered.
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Arise, walk in the land
through its length and its width
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for I give it to you.'"
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The descendants of Abraham
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were supposed to
get that land forever.
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And when the Romans
came, it represented something
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more than just
geographical occupation.
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The land was meaningfully
tied to the promise of God,
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to the covenant with Abraham,
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and it was a potent symbol
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that God had favored
Abraham's descendants,
00:06:02.49\00:06:05.79
to lose control of the land
to a bunch of idolatrous pagans
00:06:05.79\00:06:09.80
wasn't just an insult,
00:06:09.80\00:06:11.67
it was a signal that
something had gone wrong
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with their entire faith
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and even suggested
that maybe just maybe,
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God had abandoned them.
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The historian, James Carroll
points out something important
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when it comes to Roman history.
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You and I tend
to favor the Romans
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because our whole way of
life is built on their empire,
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to one extent or another.
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As Westerners, we
got our system of laws,
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system of government,
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a good deal of our architecture,
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and our ideas of good
infrastructure from the Romans.
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We can still see, there
are amazing roads and aqueduct
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scattered all across Europe,
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and so we think of the Romans
as a civilizing influencer,
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a people who
brought a bit of order
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to my ancient
ancestors, the barbarians.
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So when Rome fell and
gave way to barbarian kingdoms,
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we say that's the
beginning of the dark age,
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is a time when civilization
quite literally fell apart.
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Of course we know
how brutal Rome was,
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they persecuted, they had
cruel torture and crucifixion,
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but on the whole,
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most of us tend to give
the Romans a passing grade,
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they seem like they're
kind of a good thing to us,
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which brings me to
James Carroll's observation
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from his famous book,
"Constantine's Sword."
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He writes, "To
the peasant peoples
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of the Roman dominated world,
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to the millions of
slaves and petty laborers
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and Rome itself fully 1
million in the population
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of 2 million were slaves,
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to the lepers and beggars,
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to the troublemakers
whose lives could be snuffed out
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with little notice taken,
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no characterization
of Caesar's evil
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would have been too extreme.
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We have looked
back at Rome from above,
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from the point of view
that is of those who benefited
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from its systems,
traveled its roads,
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beheld its
architectural wonders,
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learn to think in its language,
00:08:00.84\00:08:03.11
but what of that vast majority
who grew no such benefit?
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There is no understanding
either the Jesus movement itself
00:08:07.38\00:08:11.29
or the foundational
memory of its violent conflict
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with the Jews,
00:08:13.99\00:08:15.22
if we cannot
look back from below,
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from the vantage of those,
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for whom the Roman
systems were an endless
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ever present horror."
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Now, personally,
00:08:24.83\00:08:26.43
most people know I'm a
big fan of Roman history,
00:08:26.43\00:08:28.84
and I'm one of the
few Protestant ministers
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who likes to visit Rome more
than I like to visit Jerusalem,
00:08:30.77\00:08:34.18
but as we speak because
of my own people's history,
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we were the barbarians,
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members of the Germanic tribes
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that lived in the
dark forests to the North.
00:08:40.65\00:08:43.39
And the history of Rome
is now inextricably linked
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to my history, especially
after the fall of the empire
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when the barbarian suddenly
became the Holy Roman Empire,
00:08:50.66\00:08:55.20
a religious empire
made up of non Romans
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that just picked up
where Rome left off.
00:08:58.30\00:09:01.30
So I'll admit,
00:09:01.30\00:09:02.77
even though the Romans are
pretty brutal to my ancestors,
00:09:02.77\00:09:05.44
I still tend to see them
with rose colored glasses
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and kind of a big
grudging sense of admiration.
00:09:08.48\00:09:12.68
But you know, historically
James Carroll is right,
00:09:14.12\00:09:16.28
for the people
who lived in Palestine
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during the first century,
00:09:18.32\00:09:19.99
Rome was pretty much
a non-stop horror show,
00:09:19.99\00:09:23.02
to the point where
the Romans once crucified
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something like 2000
resistors on the hillsides
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around Jerusalem
just leaving their bodies
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to rot in the sun.
00:09:32.07\00:09:34.10
And it's not just James Carroll
who makes that observation,
00:09:34.10\00:09:37.84
there was an ancient
Hebrew prophet who knew exactly
00:09:37.84\00:09:40.84
what the Romans
would be like 100s of years
00:09:40.84\00:09:43.28
before the Roman
empire even existed.
00:09:43.28\00:09:45.41
And I'll be
right back after this
00:09:45.41\00:09:47.78
to show you what
I'm talking about.
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[upbeat music]
00:09:50.65\00:09:51.89
- [Announcer] Dragons,
beasts, cryptic statues,
00:09:51.89\00:09:55.92
Bible prophecy can be
incredibly vivid and confusing.
00:09:55.92\00:10:00.53
If you've ever read
Daniel or Revelation,
00:10:00.53\00:10:02.66
and come away scratching
your head, you're not alone.
00:10:02.66\00:10:05.73
Our free focus
on prophecy guides
00:10:05.73\00:10:08.10
are designed to help you unlock
the mysteries of the Bible
00:10:08.10\00:10:10.91
and deepen your understanding
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00:10:10.91\00:10:13.88
and our world.
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Study online or
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and start bringing
prophecy into focus today.
00:10:17.38\00:10:20.32
- In the seventh
chapter of Daniel,
00:10:21.65\00:10:23.39
a young Hebrew
captive living in Babylon
00:10:23.39\00:10:25.72
experiences this
really strange vision,
00:10:25.72\00:10:29.06
receives odd looking animals
coming up out of the sea.
00:10:29.06\00:10:32.09
It's absolutely fascinating
00:10:32.09\00:10:33.63
and here's the
way he records it,
00:10:33.63\00:10:35.50
Daniel seven verse one,
00:10:35.50\00:10:37.57
"In the first year of
Belshazzar, king of Babylon,
00:10:37.57\00:10:40.70
Daniel had a dream and visions
of his head while on his bed.
00:10:40.70\00:10:44.01
Then he wrote down the
dream telling the main facts.
00:10:44.01\00:10:47.08
Daniel spoke saying,
00:10:47.08\00:10:48.21
'I saw in my vision by night
00:10:48.21\00:10:50.65
and behold the
four winds of heaven
00:10:50.65\00:10:52.38
were stirring up the great sea,
00:10:52.38\00:10:54.65
and four great
beasts came up from the sea,
00:10:54.65\00:10:57.22
each different from the other.'"
00:10:57.22\00:10:59.75
So let's get a
little context for this
00:11:00.92\00:11:02.49
because this is
really, really important.
00:11:02.49\00:11:05.29
This is not just
some senseless nightmare
00:11:05.29\00:11:07.30
somebody had because they
ate too much before bedtime,
00:11:07.30\00:11:10.50
this is a deeply and
profoundly symbolic vision.
00:11:10.50\00:11:14.84
Belshazzar was the last
reigning king of Babylon,
00:11:14.84\00:11:17.74
or to be more accurate,
00:11:17.74\00:11:19.11
he was actually
just a vice region
00:11:19.11\00:11:20.91
because his father
Nabonidus was the king,
00:11:20.91\00:11:25.15
but dad liked to
go out fighting wars
00:11:25.15\00:11:27.62
instead of
sitting on the throne,
00:11:27.62\00:11:29.02
so what he did was
install his son Belshazzar
00:11:29.02\00:11:31.29
in the palace instead of him.
00:11:31.29\00:11:33.59
Now, for those of
you who know the story,
00:11:33.59\00:11:35.32
you'll remember
it was Belshazzar
00:11:35.32\00:11:36.89
who threw a massive party
00:11:36.89\00:11:38.59
the night that Babylon
fell to the Persian army.
00:11:38.59\00:11:41.63
And that what that
means for us right now
00:11:41.63\00:11:43.80
in Daniel chapter seven
00:11:43.80\00:11:45.03
is we know this
dream is taking place
00:11:45.03\00:11:47.50
near the very end of
the Babylonian empire.
00:11:47.50\00:11:50.97
Daniel himself
standing on the shore,
00:11:52.44\00:11:54.91
and he's watching the winds
of heaven churn up the seat,
00:11:54.91\00:11:58.21
kind of creating
massive white caps in waves.
00:11:58.21\00:12:02.05
And in the biblical world,
00:12:02.05\00:12:03.49
the wind was a symbol of
warfare and political turmoil.
00:12:03.49\00:12:07.49
As the water gets
more and more violent,
00:12:07.49\00:12:09.66
suddenly four
strange looking animals
00:12:09.66\00:12:11.69
walk up onto the
beach one after the other.
00:12:11.69\00:12:15.86
So what in the world
would that represent?
00:12:15.86\00:12:18.57
It represents international
warfare in the ancient world
00:12:18.57\00:12:22.57
were pagan Gentile empires
00:12:22.57\00:12:24.97
tried to seize
power from each other
00:12:24.97\00:12:26.81
and establish themselves as
the world's dominant superpower.
00:12:26.81\00:12:31.28
To the Jews,
God's promised land,
00:12:31.28\00:12:34.08
the land that the Romans
would eventually call Palestine
00:12:34.08\00:12:37.22
because of the
Philistines who lived there,
00:12:37.22\00:12:39.99
that land was an
island of God's promise
00:12:39.99\00:12:43.06
in the middle of
this violent Gentile sea.
00:12:43.06\00:12:46.19
To the Jews, the
sea was the Gentiles,
00:12:46.19\00:12:49.20
I'll show you what I mean,
00:12:49.20\00:12:50.40
listen to this
passage from Psalm 144,
00:12:50.40\00:12:53.23
where David is praying
and he says in verse seven,
00:12:53.23\00:12:56.27
"Stretch out
your hand from above,
00:12:56.27\00:12:59.14
rescue me and deliver
me out of great waters
00:12:59.14\00:13:02.58
from the hand of foreigners."
00:13:02.58\00:13:05.28
So the great waters are
the troublesome foreigners
00:13:05.28\00:13:08.68
that surround
the land of promise.
00:13:08.68\00:13:11.22
Here's another example
00:13:11.22\00:13:12.45
now from the book
of Isaiah chapter 17,
00:13:12.45\00:13:14.49
where it says, "Woe to
the multitude of many people
00:13:14.49\00:13:18.19
who make a noise
like the roar of the seas,
00:13:18.19\00:13:20.90
and to the rushing of
nations that make a rushing
00:13:20.90\00:13:23.97
like the rushing
of mighty waters."
00:13:23.97\00:13:27.80
What Daniel is witnessing
in Daniel chapter seven,
00:13:27.80\00:13:30.77
is a series of Gentile nations
00:13:30.77\00:13:32.67
coming up on the
shores of God's promised land,
00:13:32.67\00:13:36.01
and they're about to dominate
the children of Abraham.
00:13:36.01\00:13:39.48
And the reason this
is allowed to happen
00:13:39.48\00:13:41.38
is because way back
when after God established
00:13:41.38\00:13:44.22
the Israelites in
the land of promise,
00:13:44.22\00:13:46.86
they started wishing they
could be like the other nations,
00:13:46.86\00:13:49.82
like the Gentiles,
00:13:49.82\00:13:51.46
to the point where
they actually demanded
00:13:51.46\00:13:54.10
a human king.
00:13:54.10\00:13:55.30
Now that was not part
of God's original design.
00:13:56.50\00:14:00.10
What he wanted
was a nation of people
00:14:00.10\00:14:01.84
who answered directly to Him.
00:14:01.84\00:14:03.74
And the role of
human leadership was simply
00:14:03.74\00:14:06.07
to point people
to the will of God.
00:14:06.07\00:14:08.91
But when it looked like the
prophet Samuel was going to die,
00:14:08.91\00:14:12.11
God's people kind of panicked
about an apparent vacuum
00:14:12.11\00:14:14.85
of leadership that was coming
00:14:14.85\00:14:16.62
one that would be
left behind by his death
00:14:16.62\00:14:18.79
and so they demanded a king,
00:14:18.79\00:14:21.06
and here's what God
said about that request
00:14:21.06\00:14:23.32
over in first
Samuel chapter eight.
00:14:23.32\00:14:25.83
It says, "And the
Lord said to Samuel,
00:14:25.83\00:14:27.73
'Heed the voice of the people
in all that they say to you
00:14:27.73\00:14:30.97
for they have not rejected you,
00:14:30.97\00:14:33.34
but they have rejected me
00:14:33.34\00:14:34.67
that I should not
reign over them.'"
00:14:34.67\00:14:38.04
So from God's perspective,
00:14:38.04\00:14:40.88
the request for a human Monarch
00:14:40.88\00:14:42.64
was actually a
rejection of God's right
00:14:42.64\00:14:45.08
to govern his people directly.
00:14:45.08\00:14:47.25
And because God does not
force people to love Him,
00:14:47.25\00:14:51.19
He gave these
people what they wanted,
00:14:51.19\00:14:53.32
and the inevitable
result of human leadership
00:14:53.32\00:14:56.19
was corruption and wickedness.
00:14:56.19\00:14:58.69
And it got so bad
00:14:58.69\00:14:59.93
that eventually God
allowed the Babylonians
00:14:59.93\00:15:01.93
to come and sack
the city of Jerusalem
00:15:01.93\00:15:04.13
and destroy the temple
and take His people captive.
00:15:04.13\00:15:07.84
That's how the
prophet Daniel gets to Babylon
00:15:09.07\00:15:12.11
the first place.
00:15:12.11\00:15:13.61
And now he sees the
future of God's people
00:15:13.61\00:15:16.11
and it is not a happy story.
00:15:16.11\00:15:18.78
They wanted human leadership
00:15:18.78\00:15:20.22
and they're gonna get
exactly what they asked for.
00:15:20.22\00:15:22.62
They wanted to
be like the Gentile,
00:15:22.62\00:15:24.09
so they're going to be
living with Gentile domination
00:15:24.09\00:15:26.89
until the very end of time,
00:15:26.89\00:15:29.96
one kingdom after another
is gonna walk up onto the shore
00:15:29.96\00:15:34.00
of the promised land.
00:15:34.00\00:15:35.53
Now the first animal
Daniel sees in chapter seven
00:15:35.53\00:15:38.33
is a lion with Eagle's wings,
00:15:38.33\00:15:39.90
or rather well-known symbol
for the Babylonian empire.
00:15:39.90\00:15:43.37
In fact, if you go
to the British Museum
00:15:43.37\00:15:45.57
or the Pergamon
Museum in Berlin,
00:15:45.57\00:15:47.28
you'll find all kinds
of examples of winged lions
00:15:47.28\00:15:49.78
that came
straight out of Babylon.
00:15:49.78\00:15:52.45
After that, we get a bear
that's raised up on one side
00:15:52.45\00:15:55.98
with three ribs in its mouth.
00:15:55.98\00:15:58.12
And it was during
the reign of Belshazzar
00:15:58.12\00:15:59.95
that the Persians came
and sacked the city of Babylon
00:15:59.95\00:16:02.99
and then went on to build
00:16:02.99\00:16:04.73
the world's first
truly international empire.
00:16:04.73\00:16:08.06
Now, the most likely
reason this bear has lopsided
00:16:08.06\00:16:11.33
it is because the Persian
empire itself was lopsided.
00:16:11.33\00:16:14.60
It was a coalition between
the Medes and the Persians
00:16:14.60\00:16:17.34
and the Persians were
more easily the dominant half.
00:16:17.34\00:16:21.44
The three ribs in its mouth
00:16:21.44\00:16:22.71
probably the three
provinces of Babylon,
00:16:22.71\00:16:25.55
Babylon, Egypt, and Lydia.
00:16:25.55\00:16:28.55
Then we get a four headed
leopard with two sets of wings,
00:16:28.55\00:16:31.65
and that represents the
Macedonians or the Greeks
00:16:31.65\00:16:34.56
who conquered the Persians
under Alexander The Great.
00:16:34.56\00:16:38.03
Of course in
time Alexander died,
00:16:38.03\00:16:40.60
and his empire was
divided among his four generals,
00:16:40.60\00:16:43.13
which is why we suddenly
have a four headed beast.
00:16:43.13\00:16:46.87
In an aside note,
00:16:46.87\00:16:48.37
we know the Greeks demanded
that their subjugated peoples
00:16:48.37\00:16:51.14
learn to read and speak Greek,
00:16:51.14\00:16:52.97
which is why it became the
universal language of learning
00:16:52.97\00:16:56.24
even for the early Roman empire,
00:16:56.24\00:16:58.28
which is why the new
Testament was composed in Greek,
00:16:58.28\00:17:01.95
even though it was
written during the Roman period.
00:17:01.95\00:17:05.69
Then we get the fourth piece,
00:17:05.69\00:17:06.89
which of course
would be the Romans.
00:17:06.89\00:17:08.69
And here's where I
wanna slow down a bit
00:17:08.69\00:17:10.49
and read the
description carefully
00:17:10.49\00:17:12.83
because it
completely anticipates
00:17:12.83\00:17:14.93
the reality of living in
first century, Palestine.
00:17:14.93\00:17:18.40
This comes from Daniel
seven verse seven where it says,
00:17:18.40\00:17:22.00
"After this I saw
in the night visions,
00:17:22.00\00:17:25.44
and behold a
fourth beast dreadful
00:17:25.44\00:17:27.78
and terrible exceedingly strong.
00:17:27.78\00:17:30.51
It had huge iron teeth,
00:17:30.51\00:17:32.81
it was devouring,
breaking in pieces
00:17:32.81\00:17:34.82
and trampling the
residue with its feet,
00:17:34.82\00:17:37.19
it was different from all
the beasts that were before it
00:17:37.19\00:17:39.95
and it had 10 horns.
00:17:39.95\00:17:42.52
Now that was
exactly the experience
00:17:42.52\00:17:44.89
of the first century
Jews who lived in Palestine
00:17:44.89\00:17:47.60
during the time of Christ.
00:17:47.60\00:17:49.46
The Roman empire
was completely brutal,
00:17:49.46\00:17:52.40
more so than any of the
three previous Gentile kingdoms.
00:17:52.40\00:17:57.27
I mean, don't get me wrong,
00:17:57.27\00:17:58.77
the others were pretty brutal
too, but Rome took the cake.
00:17:58.77\00:18:02.44
Rome was willing to
devour, to break in pieces,
00:18:02.44\00:18:05.68
and to trample anything or
anybody who got in her way.
00:18:05.68\00:18:09.65
And that's not even
the end of the story,
00:18:09.65\00:18:11.92
so you sit tight because I'm
coming right back after this.
00:18:11.92\00:18:15.96
- [Instructor] Here
at the voice of prophecy,
00:18:17.26\00:18:19.19
we're committed to
creating top quality programming
00:18:19.19\00:18:21.73
for the whole family,
00:18:21.73\00:18:23.20
like our audio adventure
series, Discovery Mountain.
00:18:23.20\00:18:26.37
Discovery Mountain
is a Bible based program
00:18:26.37\00:18:28.84
for kids of all
ages and backgrounds.
00:18:28.84\00:18:31.17
Your family will enjoy
the faith building stories
00:18:31.17\00:18:33.94
from this small
mountain summer camp, Penn town.
00:18:33.94\00:18:36.81
With 24 seasonal
episodes every year
00:18:36.81\00:18:39.31
and fresh content every week,
00:18:39.31\00:18:41.45
there's always a new
adventure just on the horizon.
00:18:41.45\00:18:44.45
[upbeat music]
00:18:44.45\00:18:47.06
- Try to imagine the impact
00:18:48.02\00:18:49.59
of 2000 of your
fellow countrymen,
00:18:49.59\00:18:52.26
your friends
and family crucified
00:18:52.26\00:18:54.10
right outside the city walls.
00:18:54.10\00:18:56.23
It happened after the
death of Herod The Great,
00:18:56.23\00:18:59.17
a king that while
most Jews despised,
00:18:59.17\00:19:01.74
because they thought of them
is nothing but a Roman puppet.
00:19:01.74\00:19:04.91
A massive rebellion
against Rome broke out
00:19:06.07\00:19:09.21
in the wake of Herod's death.
00:19:09.21\00:19:10.91
And the Roman governor of Syria,
00:19:10.91\00:19:12.85
a guy by the
name of Publius Varus
00:19:12.85\00:19:15.48
sent in his troops to squash it
00:19:15.48\00:19:17.49
by putting 2000 rebels to death
00:19:17.49\00:19:19.75
in the most
cruel way imaginable.
00:19:19.75\00:19:23.29
This happened, incidentally,
00:19:23.29\00:19:24.63
not too far after
the birth of Christ,
00:19:24.63\00:19:27.23
who we believe was born sometime
between five and four BC.
00:19:27.23\00:19:32.23
And I know it seems
like a mistake because,
00:19:33.37\00:19:34.74
well, how could Jesus be born
00:19:34.74\00:19:36.07
four or five
years before Christ?
00:19:36.07\00:19:38.01
Well, it's because we
made a mistake with the dates.
00:19:38.01\00:19:41.34
So, imagine today the
impact of getting in your car
00:19:41.34\00:19:45.21
and driving out of town,
00:19:45.21\00:19:46.68
and seeing the tortured bodies
of your friends and family
00:19:46.68\00:19:50.29
lining the shoulder of
the road for miles on end.
00:19:50.29\00:19:54.56
And you'll get a sense
of just how devastating
00:19:54.56\00:19:56.79
this event really was.
00:19:56.79\00:19:59.09
What we have back
in the first century
00:19:59.09\00:20:01.10
is a season
anti Roman incentive.
00:20:01.10\00:20:04.43
But at the same time,
00:20:04.43\00:20:05.90
we find that the Jewish
nation itself was hardly unified
00:20:05.90\00:20:08.57
in its approach to the Romans.
00:20:08.57\00:20:10.44
I mean, most people
shared a hatred for the Romans,
00:20:10.44\00:20:13.64
but they also harbored
resentment against each other
00:20:13.64\00:20:16.48
because of their
perspectives on the problem.
00:20:16.48\00:20:18.91
On the one hand,
00:20:19.78\00:20:20.62
you had the Pharisees
00:20:20.62\00:20:21.85
who saw the
occupation by a Gentile nation
00:20:21.85\00:20:23.99
as a corrective measure from God
00:20:23.99\00:20:26.29
that would bring people
back to a strict observance
00:20:26.29\00:20:29.39
of the law.
00:20:29.39\00:20:30.93
Then you had the Sadducees
who were the aristocrats,
00:20:30.93\00:20:33.90
and they control a lot of
what happened at the temple,
00:20:33.90\00:20:36.36
and they liked cooperating
with Rome whenever possible
00:20:36.36\00:20:39.50
just to keep the peace because,
00:20:39.50\00:20:41.64
well, maybe because they
had so much power to protect.
00:20:41.64\00:20:44.84
Then you had the Aetius
00:20:44.84\00:20:46.07
who saw any
cooperation with Rome whatsoever
00:20:46.07\00:20:49.41
is sheer treason.
00:20:49.41\00:20:51.21
And they spent a lot of
time preaching repentance
00:20:51.21\00:20:53.75
kind of in the
style of John the Baptist.
00:20:53.75\00:20:57.15
And of course on
top of all of that,
00:20:57.15\00:20:58.89
society was also divided
into liberals and conservatives.
00:20:58.89\00:21:02.79
Some people were Hellenistic
who loved Greek culture
00:21:02.79\00:21:05.89
and tried to bring it
into the Jewish faith,
00:21:05.89\00:21:08.13
and other people were Zealots
00:21:08.13\00:21:09.70
who didn't mind
resorting to arm resistance.
00:21:09.70\00:21:12.70
There was no
end to the divisions
00:21:13.87\00:21:16.27
among the Jews of
the first century,
00:21:16.27\00:21:18.31
which means that a
master of conquest like Rome
00:21:18.31\00:21:21.61
could easily
exploit the infighting
00:21:21.61\00:21:24.15
to keep the Jews from
successfully resisting them.
00:21:24.15\00:21:27.38
That was the world of Jesus.
00:21:28.28\00:21:30.82
And to read the gospels
without understanding that
00:21:30.82\00:21:33.19
is to miss a lot.
00:21:33.19\00:21:35.46
There were people who expected
Jesus to overthrow the Romans
00:21:35.46\00:21:38.43
because they
suspected He might be Messiah.
00:21:38.43\00:21:41.70
And they knew full well
that at the end of this prophecy
00:21:41.70\00:21:45.53
in Daniel chapter seven,
00:21:45.53\00:21:46.84
the son of man
receives an everlasting kingdom,
00:21:46.84\00:21:50.51
in another part of
Daniel and chapter two,
00:21:50.51\00:21:52.64
it tells us that
after four key empires,
00:21:52.64\00:21:55.48
a stone comes from the sky,
00:21:55.48\00:21:57.55
smashes all
those Gentile kingdoms
00:21:57.55\00:22:00.08
and then fills the
earth with the kingdom of God.
00:22:00.08\00:22:03.79
So the Jews of the
first century mostly knew
00:22:04.99\00:22:09.12
it was about time
for Messiah to appear
00:22:09.12\00:22:11.29
because they were living
under the fourth pagan empire.
00:22:11.29\00:22:14.66
And that's why you have
people trying to crown Jesus
00:22:14.66\00:22:17.53
as king.
00:22:17.53\00:22:18.80
And it's the reason
that so many of His followers
00:22:18.80\00:22:21.54
were so disappointed
when He was crucified.
00:22:21.54\00:22:24.84
It seemed like something
had gone horribly wrong
00:22:24.84\00:22:28.61
based on their understanding
of the Old Testament.
00:22:28.61\00:22:32.45
You might remember the
conversation that the risen
00:22:32.45\00:22:34.82
Christ had with two
disciples on the road
00:22:34.82\00:22:37.72
to Emmaus over
in Luke chapter 24.
00:22:37.72\00:22:40.69
It says, "Then the one
whose name was Cleopas answered
00:22:40.69\00:22:44.89
and said to Him, 'Are you
the only stranger in Jerusalem,
00:22:44.89\00:22:48.40
and have you not known the
things which happened there
00:22:48.40\00:22:51.20
in these days?'
00:22:51.20\00:22:52.50
And He, that speaking
of Jesus said to them,
00:22:52.50\00:22:55.70
'what things?'
00:22:55.70\00:22:57.47
So they said to Him,
00:22:57.47\00:22:58.91
the things
concerning Jesus of Nazareth
00:22:58.91\00:23:01.04
who was a prophet mighty in deed
00:23:01.04\00:23:02.74
and word before
God and all the people,
00:23:02.74\00:23:04.95
and how the chief
priests and our rulers
00:23:04.95\00:23:06.98
delivered Him to be condemned
to death and crucified Him.
00:23:06.98\00:23:11.25
But we were hoping
00:23:11.25\00:23:12.75
that it was He who was
going to redeem Israel.
00:23:12.75\00:23:15.76
Indeed, besides all of this,
00:23:15.76\00:23:17.36
today is the third day
since these things happened.'"
00:23:17.36\00:23:21.23
when it comes to reading the
Bible, context is everything.
00:23:22.66\00:23:27.10
And unfortunately far
too many modern Christians
00:23:28.50\00:23:30.27
restrict their reading
to just the New Testament,
00:23:30.27\00:23:33.64
which is entirely constructed
00:23:33.64\00:23:36.04
out of the thinking
of the Old Testament.
00:23:36.04\00:23:38.48
To read the gospels
apart from that context
00:23:38.48\00:23:41.02
in the Old Testament
00:23:41.02\00:23:42.22
is to miss a lot of
very important details,
00:23:42.22\00:23:46.12
and to get an inadequate
picture of who Christ is
00:23:46.12\00:23:49.59
and what he came to accomplish.
00:23:49.59\00:23:52.49
Now in the very short
time that we have left,
00:23:52.49\00:23:54.50
I have one more
thing I wanna show you,
00:23:54.50\00:23:56.33
and we're gonna look at the
00:23:56.33\00:23:57.50
all important
historical context for us.
00:23:57.50\00:24:01.04
The prophecy of Daniel
00:24:01.04\00:24:02.44
didn't just show a
devastating Roman empire,
00:24:02.44\00:24:05.17
it also showed a
disturbing development
00:24:05.17\00:24:07.11
that would come after
the Roman empire collapsed.
00:24:07.11\00:24:09.74
And before the return of Christ,
00:24:09.74\00:24:12.45
here it is now in Daniel
seven and verse 23, it says,
00:24:12.45\00:24:17.32
"Thus, he said,
00:24:17.32\00:24:18.85
'The fourth beast shall
be a fourth kingdom on earth,
00:24:18.85\00:24:21.52
which shall be different
from all other kingdoms
00:24:21.52\00:24:24.13
and shall
devour the whole earth,
00:24:24.13\00:24:26.46
trample it and
break it in pieces.'"
00:24:26.46\00:24:29.76
So that's the pagan Roman
empire and we've seen that,
00:24:29.76\00:24:32.37
but now watch this.
00:24:32.37\00:24:34.54
Verse 24, "The 10
horns are 10 Kings
00:24:34.54\00:24:37.34
who shall arise
from this kingdom."
00:24:37.34\00:24:40.74
That's describing
exactly what happened
00:24:40.74\00:24:42.61
after the Western
Roman empire collapsed,
00:24:42.61\00:24:44.68
it divided into fragments,
00:24:44.68\00:24:46.21
kingdoms ruled by
the barbarian tribes
00:24:46.21\00:24:48.85
who brought the
empire to its knees,
00:24:48.85\00:24:50.62
people like the Germanic gods.
00:24:50.62\00:24:53.72
And the rise of the barbarian
00:24:53.72\00:24:55.32
suddenly creates a
new kind of Roman empire,
00:24:55.32\00:24:58.06
one word the church
starts to fill the power vacuum
00:24:58.06\00:25:02.03
left behind by the
collapsed Roman state.
00:25:02.03\00:25:05.60
What it produces is
something we now call
00:25:05.60\00:25:07.94
the Holy Roman empire,
00:25:07.94\00:25:09.77
which to some extent or other
00:25:09.77\00:25:11.57
still kind of
exists to this day.
00:25:11.57\00:25:14.14
And that the peak of
power is the church in Europe
00:25:14.14\00:25:16.58
laid claim to the political
power of the failed Roman state,
00:25:16.58\00:25:20.08
it started to behave
in reprehensible way,
00:25:20.08\00:25:22.72
something all of us
read about in history class,
00:25:22.72\00:25:25.32
and something that every
Bible believing Christian
00:25:25.32\00:25:28.22
should be willing to admit.
00:25:28.22\00:25:30.79
Even though we
claimed the name of Christ,
00:25:30.79\00:25:33.29
we started confiscating
the property of people
00:25:33.29\00:25:35.80
we called heretics,
00:25:35.80\00:25:37.27
and we started burning
books and even burning people,
00:25:37.27\00:25:41.10
and Daniel saw that
coming to in verse 24,
00:25:41.10\00:25:44.27
"And another
shall rise after them,
00:25:44.27\00:25:46.11
he shall be
different from the first ones,
00:25:46.11\00:25:47.91
and shall subdue three Kings.
00:25:47.91\00:25:49.91
He shall speak pompous
words against the Most High,
00:25:49.91\00:25:52.55
shall persecute the
saints of the Most High,
00:25:52.55\00:25:55.32
and Shall intend to
change times and laws."
00:25:55.32\00:25:58.82
The philosopher,
Santayana once famously said,
00:26:00.46\00:26:02.69
"Those who do not
learn from history
00:26:02.69\00:26:04.73
are doomed to repeat it."
00:26:04.73\00:26:06.06
You know, something
he's absolutely right.
00:26:06.06\00:26:08.86
It's one thing to miss
details in the New Testament,
00:26:10.20\00:26:11.93
because we lack
historical context,
00:26:11.93\00:26:14.44
it's another to repeat
the kinds of atrocities
00:26:14.44\00:26:17.44
committed by the Roman
empire for the very same reason.
00:26:17.44\00:26:21.31
We like to call the time
after the collapse of Rome
00:26:21.31\00:26:24.01
the dark age and
it certainly fits.
00:26:24.01\00:26:26.51
Not only did we lose things
like culture and learning,
00:26:26.51\00:26:28.95
we also forgot what the
Roman empire did to God's people
00:26:28.95\00:26:31.99
in the past,
00:26:31.99\00:26:33.22
and once we achieved
a little bit of power,
00:26:33.22\00:26:35.36
we started to do
the very same things.
00:26:35.36\00:26:38.53
I'll be right back after this.
00:26:38.53\00:26:40.36
[soft upbeat music]
00:26:41.63\00:26:42.83
- [Narrator] Life
can throw a lot at us.
00:26:42.83\00:26:44.97
Sometimes we don't
have all the answers,
00:26:44.97\00:26:48.34
but that's where
the Bible comes in.
00:26:48.34\00:26:50.77
It's our guide to a
more fulfilling life.
00:26:50.77\00:26:53.88
Here at the Voice of Prophecy,
00:26:53.88\00:26:55.41
we've created the
discover Bible guides
00:26:55.41\00:26:57.58
to be your guide to the Bible.
00:26:57.58\00:26:59.18
They're designed to
be simple, easy to use,
00:26:59.18\00:27:01.68
and provide answers to many
of life's toughest questions,
00:27:01.68\00:27:04.69
and they're absolutely free.
00:27:04.69\00:27:06.72
So jump online now,
00:27:06.72\00:27:08.22
or give us a call and
start your journey of discovery.
00:27:08.22\00:27:11.29
- It's easy to
point to the pagan Romans
00:27:12.69\00:27:14.56
and condemn them as the
merciless brutes that they
00:27:14.56\00:27:17.67
weren't, and frankly,
they would deserve it.
00:27:17.67\00:27:19.57
But if you read the whole
story, the prophetic context,
00:27:19.57\00:27:22.10
you read
everything in this book,
00:27:22.10\00:27:23.67
you discover we're no better.
00:27:23.67\00:27:25.57
The moment the church in the
West had a little bit of power
00:27:25.57\00:27:28.38
we just picked up
where the Romans left off
00:27:28.38\00:27:30.35
and we behaved abysmally.
00:27:30.35\00:27:32.38
And the sad thing is this,
00:27:32.38\00:27:34.15
if we had paid
attention to context,
00:27:34.15\00:27:36.52
if we had continued
reading the entire Old Testament
00:27:36.52\00:27:39.72
and paid attention to
the prophecies of Daniel,
00:27:39.72\00:27:42.49
we would have seen the warning,
00:27:42.49\00:27:44.09
we would have seen it coming.
00:27:44.09\00:27:45.86
This is why it is so
important to compare everything
00:27:45.86\00:27:48.63
you're going to
choose to believe,
00:27:48.63\00:27:49.96
not against human opinion,
00:27:49.96\00:27:52.07
but against this book.
00:27:52.07\00:27:53.67
And not just parts of this book,
00:27:53.67\00:27:55.04
not just your
favorite parts of this book,
00:27:55.04\00:27:56.84
not just the gospels,
not just the New Testament,
00:27:56.84\00:27:59.57
this book is meant to
be read in its entirety.
00:27:59.57\00:28:03.31
Context in Bible study is
everything, read the whole book.
00:28:03.31\00:28:08.32
I'm Shawn Boonstra,
00:28:09.05\00:28:10.15
this has been Authentic.
00:28:10.15\00:28:12.92
[bright upbeat music]
00:28:12.92\00:28:16.09